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Mudslinging American-Style
What do Europeans think of American election campaign tactics? Judging by this op-ed from Austria’s Die Presse, they’re nothing like those that take place on the Old Continent. Eva Male writes, ‘Smear campaigns are time-honored traditions in U.S. election campaigns. The longer the campaign wares on and the more heated it becomes, the more mud candidates are going to throw at one another, occasionally actively egged-on by the media.’
By Eva Male
Translated By Behncke
February 27, 2008
Austria – Die Presse – Original Article (German)
Smear campaigns are time-honored traditions in U.S. election campaigns. But one must take care: They have been known to backfire.
The longer the campaign wares on and the more heated it becomes, the more mud candidates are going to throw at one another, occasionally actively egged-on by the media. That’s what we are currently experiencing in the United States, where former First Lady Hillary Clinton must fear for her campaign for the nomination after the next big primaries in Ohio and Texas.
Clinton accused her challenger Barack Obama of inexperience in foreign policy, by indirectly comparing him to incumbent President George W. Bush. The fact that her campaign team circulated photos of Obama wearing traditional African garb – taken during a visit to Kenya – is being evaluated as racist and divisive. Just a few weeks ago, Hillary’s attack dog Bill barked vigorously at Obama. Meanwhile, Republican candidate John McCain was charged on the front page of The New York Times with having an affair with a lobbyist.
Ruthless tactics like these happen in U.S. election campaigns all the time. But they can backfire and earn sympathy for the attacked candidate. Surveys show that voters, especially the young, reject negative campaigning.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. election.
3 Responses to “Mudslinging American-Style”
This article comes from Austria, a country about whose political manners I know nothing. Other countries, like France, Ebgland and Italy, can't claim that their political arenas are the reserve for gentlemanly discourse, however. One has only to tune into England's Parliamentary sessions on C-Span to witness how commonplace evertything is. from innuento to open insults
Political gossip and skewed charaterizations are as popular overseas as they are here, and the press has no advantage over the US in objectivity.
We are not exceptional when it comes to smears and mud-slinging. The area where we have differed concerns the role that private lives, romance and religion, play in political wars. Now, with Sarkozy, even that gap may be closing.
While it is essential for Americans to be informed about how we are seen in other countres, we must remember that the way we are seen often has a cartoon-like character: a kernel of truth is presented without nuance or context., and it reflects as much about the cartoonist's own opinions as it does about his subject.
In this regard, I note that the press of other countries repeats US political allegations and mud-slinging as 'fact', but withour fact-checking, as readily as does the press in the US.
[...] ARRA News Service – Arkansas Republican Assemblies (ARRA) wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt [...]
No fuse?
ha ha ha